Hello raiders!
The launch of Demo 2.0 was crucial for incorporating some of your feedback, but our hard work of tormenting poor souls dropped into a dangerous galaxy hasn't ceased.
Over the past few months, we've focused on various macro aspects of the game, and we're poised to make sweeping changes to several key components of our project.
Crafting
We view crafting as one of the primary dynamics of progression in Hell Galaxy. During the design phase, we opted to introduce crafting not only because it was a feature we were keen on developing, but more importantly because it aligns with the narrative and the game world. A raider possesses only one small biological part—the center of its consciousness—but otherwise, it's a machine that needs to evolve. The ship serves as the equivalent of the body lost during the extraction, and its variations signify the raider's development as a machine in the Galaxy of Neterun.
We want crafting to be a fun experience for you, to feel the progression of the game, and to be easy to learn. When we realized that its operation was probably more complicated than expected, we decided to work on simplifying it and making it clearer for you. We added a tutorial panel dedicated to crafting, which was missing from the demo we released. We are also refining the user interface to make the crafting experience as smooth as possible. Additionally, we are working on modules, which are the parts that raiders use to modify bodies, to give our raiders more customization options.
Creatures
We consider creatures to be another fundamental aspect of our game world, both physical and... immaterial creatures. In the demo you encountered three types of creatures: the Zanions, the Alters, and a giant Colossus, a creature with biological and mechanical parts. Some creatures will have their story intertwined with that of the Protagonist (the raider extracted at the beginning of the story), and we are intent on curating their gameplay to provide you with variety in encounters. We would like to immerse you in the strange biology that characterizes the Galaxy of Neterun, which is why we are keen to curate our creatures (which you'll then hunt for sonic matter, but hey... that's the ruthless law of raiders). We are also working on their balance, and we are trying to reach a level that is satisfactory to us and to offer variety to all our raiders out there. That is precisely why we are extending the balancing work phase to all the other raiders as well. We are asking ourselves the best we can do because we care about providing you with a gaming experience that is fun and varied.
Environments
We are deepening our work on environments and lighting. We are grateful that many of you enjoyed the environments you saw in the demo, which we are expanding throughout the rest of the game. The Neterun galaxy reflects the state of the raiders, somewhere between machine and life. During their colonization, the Raiders built structures that reflect their lost imagination, using pieces of metal that invaded Neterun in lifeless clusters. But the galaxy is also inhabited by viable and dangerous creatures, not to mention the structures left behind by the Neterunians, the race that once inhabited the galaxy and is now gone. Again, this is only a glimpse in the demo, but in the game you will find other signs of this extinct race, as well as spaces where raider colonization has had to yield to the presence of dangerous creatures.
Game Events
We are enriching the game world with more events and subquests, as well as refining the sonic matter delivery reward system and introducing new VFX and SFX. We are very keen to convey to you every aspect of our galaxy, its past history and the present darkness of the raiders, far from any familiar form and in exile, accompanied only by their artificial intelligences. We truly want our raiders to enjoy delving into all of these aspects, as well as overcoming the dangers we place in their path.
And that is it, at least for now. We hope to continue to receive your support and look forward to seeing you at the next dev diary!
Farewell, raiders!